4. Disney's Global Branding
Last week at CinemaCon, Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn pointed out one key difference between Disney and every other studio in Hollywood, including Warner Bros. where Horn used to be the top executive. Disney is a brand. Horn was being a bit modest, though, as Disney is one of the strongest, most iconic, and most powerful brands in the world. Marvel has already benefited greatly from its relatively new association with Disney. The first film released with Disney,
The Avengers, became the biggest film ever produced my Marvel Studios. The film's box office haul more than doubled the next closest Marvel Studios picture,
Iron Man 2. That's not to say Disney deserves all or even most of the credit for that success, but the company's global marketing prowess had to help. Walk into a Disney Store now and look at all the merchandise licensed from Marvel films right up front. A visit to Disney Land in Anaheim, CA now includes an exhibit where one can look at all of Tony Stark's armored suits. Disney, a brand in its own right, is making the Marvel brand bigger than ever before. With Disney's help, Marvel Studios now has the chance to do the unthinkable in branding its own subsection of the superhero genre. The company may just be able to get mainstream audiences to understand and identify the difference between a Marvel superhero film and a similar film from Warner Bros. or any other studio. These audiences generally lump all the films together regardless of the original publisher of a given character, but perhaps not anymore. If Marvel and Disney are successful in this regard, the already insurmountable gap between them and Warner Bros./DC will actually widen.